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Yeah, it's not an innovative sector, though a lot of the blame belongs with the hardware manufacturers and not the installers. FWIW, the quotes I got for insta

by ajross 3y ago

Yeah, it's not an innovative sector, though a lot of the blame belongs with the hardware manufacturers and not the installers. FWIW, the quotes I got for installation weren't that awful. But getting it hooked up to the Nest thermostat turned out to be a 2-day process and require a subcontractor to show up.

sokoloff 3y ago
I've installed two Nest thermostats and there's industry standardized color-coding and functionality and Nest conforms to that. (I don't doubt that you had that problem, but I think that speaks more to the incompetence of the original installer than to the complexity of installing a thermostat with a screen.)
- ajross 3y ago
  I think it was more that the heat pump itself really wanted to be integrated with the Carrier Official Thermostat (which I think might have been an ecobee but can't remember), and the documentation on how to run it in legacy/standard/on-off mode was missing or confusing.
CharlieDigital 3y ago
Probably a bit more nuanced than that. A lot of the installers run small businesses. If one of these units goes wrong or if they do the install wrong because it's new to them, then that's lost time and lost revenue rectifying it.
- conductr 3y ago
  This is it. They price installs at generally a single day for complete system swap for install time assuming ducts are reused and never want even spend the travel time coming back on another day in my area. If they do, it’s eroding the profit they expected on your job. They usually have special crews that only do installs and also generally like to keep to a small list of manufacturers so they can keep as quick and efficient as possible. New and unfamiliar tech throws a wrench in that.
young_rutabaga 3y ago
Inverter heat pumps shouldn't be controlled by dumb "smart" thermostats like Nest. They send only on-off signals, while a compatible communicating thermostat sends a numerical setpoint, allowing the unit to modulate

by ajross 3y ago

sokoloff 3y ago

I've installed two Nest thermostats and there's industry standardized color-coding and functionality and Nest conforms to that. (I don't doubt that you had that problem, but I think that speaks more to the incompetence of the original installer than to the complexity of installing a thermostat with a screen.)

ajross 3y ago
I think it was more that the heat pump itself really wanted to be integrated with the Carrier Official Thermostat (which I think might have been an ecobee but can't remember), and the documentation on how to run it in legacy/standard/on-off mode was missing or confusing.

CharlieDigital 3y ago

Probably a bit more nuanced than that. A lot of the installers run small businesses. If one of these units goes wrong or if they do the install wrong because it's new to them, then that's lost time and lost revenue rectifying it.

conductr 3y ago
This is it. They price installs at generally a single day for complete system swap for install time assuming ducts are reused and never want even spend the travel time coming back on another day in my area. If they do, it’s eroding the profit they expected on your job. They usually have special crews that only do installs and also generally like to keep to a small list of manufacturers so they can keep as quick and efficient as possible. New and unfamiliar tech throws a wrench in that.

young_rutabaga 3y ago

Inverter heat pumps shouldn't be controlled by dumb "smart" thermostats like Nest. They send only on-off signals, while a compatible communicating thermostat sends a numerical setpoint, allowing the unit to modulate